In a regulatory filing, Adani Enterprises said that AAHL has acquired 28.20 crore equity shares of MIAL. AAHL is also a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises….reports Asian Lite News
Adani Group’s flagship holding company Adani Airport Holdings Ltd (AAHL) has acquired 23.5 per cent stake in the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL) from ACSA Global Ltd (ACSA) and Bid Services Division (Mauritius) Ltd (Bidvest) for Rs 1,685.25 crore.
In a regulatory filing, Adani Enterprises said that AAHL has acquired 28.20 crore equity shares of MIAL. AAHL is also a wholly owned subsidiary of Adani Enterprises.
“Adani Airport Holdings Ltd has acquired 23.5 per cent equity stake i.e. 28,20,00,000 equity shares of Rs 10 of Mumbai International Airport Ltd from ACSA Global Ltd and Bid Services Division (Mauritius) Ltd,” the filing said.
Incorporated on March 2, 2006, MIAL is engaged in the business of development, construction and operation of the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport.
In August last year, the AAHL entered into an agreement to acquire the debt of GVK Airport Developers Ltd (GVKADL) which in turn would help the Adani Group acquire controlling interest in MIAL.
GVKADL is the holding company through which GVK Group holds 50.50 per cent equity stake in the Mumbai International Airport Ltd (MIAL), which in turn holds 74 per cent equity stake in the Navi Mumbai International Airport Ltd.
The NCAER Business Confidence index (BCI) rose 29.6 per cent on a q-o-q basis during the third quarter of FY 2020-21….reports Asian Lite News
As economic activities pick up and vaccination drive gathers pace the business confidence in the country has improved, showed a survey by National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER).
The NCAER Business Confidence index (BCI) rose 29.6 per cent on a q-o-q basis during the third quarter of FY 2020-21.
“The BCI rose further by 29.6 per cent on a q-o-q basis, rising from 65.5 in 2020-21:Q2 to 84.8 in 2020-21:Q3,” and NCAER statement said.
However, business sentiments remained worse than they were during the corresponding period in the previous year, it added.
The proportion of respondents expecting that ‘overall economic conditions will improve in the next six months’ increased by 4.8 percentage points, from 29.8 per cent in 2020-21, Q2 to 34.6 per cent in 2020-21, Q3.
Further the proportion of respondents expecting that the ‘financial position of firms will improve in the next six months’ increased by 3.1 percentage points, from 27.7 per cent in 2020-21, Q2 to 30.8 per cent in 2020-21, Q3, it said.
The BCI increased for the consumer durables sector by 26.1 per cent on a q-o-q basis in 2020- 21, Q3, for consumer non-durables by 32 per cent, for intermediate goods by 37 per cent, for capital goods by 27 per cent, and for the services sector by 32.5 per cent.
At present, the framework for alternate dispute resolution consists of three separate Ombudsman schemes for banks, NBFCs and non-bank PPIs…reports Asian Lite News
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) will roll out the Integrated Ombudsman Scheme for banks, NBFCs and non-bank prepaid payment issuers (PPIs) in June this year.
At present, the framework for alternate dispute resolution consists of three separate Ombudsman schemes for banks, NBFCs and non-bank PPIs. These three schemes are operated by the RBI from 22 Ombudsman offices located across the country.
“To make the Ombudsman mechanism simpler, efficient and more responsive, it has been decided to integrate the three Ombudsman schemes and introduce centralised processing of grievances following a ‘One Nation One Ombudsman’ approach,” the RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das said on Friday.
He noted that the move is intended to make the process of redress of grievances easier by enabling the customers to register their complaints under the integrated scheme, with one centralised reference point.
In another consumer-centric move, the RBI has decided that with enhanced penetration and efficiency of digital payments, major payment system operators would be required to facilitate setting-up of a centralised industrywide ’24×7′ helpline for addressing customer queries in respect of various digital payment products and give information on available grievance redress mechanisms.
Going forward, the facility of redress of customer grievances through the helpline shall be considered. This is envisaged to enhance consumer trust and confidence in the digital payments ecosystem.
Bhat will move to the Mahindra Group from Tech Mahindra where he has been the CFO since June 2018, responsible for the finance and secretarial functions across 160 subsidiaries and over 90 countries…reports Asian Lite News
Mahindra & Mahindra Limited has announced the appointment of Manoj Bhat as the group Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with effect from April 2.
Bhat will move to the Mahindra Group from Tech Mahindra where he has been the CFO since June 2018, responsible for the finance and secretarial functions across 160 subsidiaries and over 90 countries.
Anish Shah, the current Deputy Managing Director and group CFO of the Mahindra Group, will assume the role of Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer from April 2. Bhat will report to Shah and will be a part of the group corporate office leadership team.
Bhat will lead Mahindra Group’s finance organisation, working closely with the finance leadership teams of the group companies on strategy, governance and controllership; providing leadership on all aspects related to financial planning and analysis, financial reporting, business planning, tax management, fund raising and treasury operations.
The other entities and individuals barred from the securities market are Future Corporate Resources Private Limited (FCRPL), Kishore Biyani’s brother Anil Biyani, Rajesh Pathak and Rajkumar Pande….reports Asian Lite News
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) on Wednesday barred Future Retail CEO Kishore Biyani, among others, from the securities market for a period of one year for insider trading in the scrip of Future Retail (FRL).
The other entities and individuals barred from the securities market are Future Corporate Resources Private Limited (FCRPL), Kishore Biyani’s brother Anil Biyani, Rajesh Pathak and Rajkumar Pande.
An investigation found that some of the entities traded in shares of Future Retail on the basis of unpublished price sensitive information (UPSI) violating SEBI norms during the period between March 10 and April 20, 2017.
Further, the noticees have also been restrained from buying, selling or dealing in the securities of Future Retail Limited (FRL), directly or indirectly, in any manner whatsoever, for a period of two years.
SEBI in its order has also asked Future Corporate Resources, Kishore Biyani and Anil Biyani to jointly and severally disgorge an amount of over Rs 17.78 crore along with an interest at the rate of 12 per cent per annum from April 20, 2020 till the date of actual payment.
The investigation observed that Future Retail had made an announcement on April 20, 2017 during market hours on the exchange titled ‘Outcome of Board Meeting’ stating a Composite Scheme of Arrangement between Future Retail Limited and Bluerock eServices Private Limited and Praxis Home Retail Private Limited and their respective shareholders.
The investigation observed that FCRPL and FRCPL Employee Welfare Trust traded in the scrip of FRL during the period of UPSI.
SEBI said that the list containing the names of people who were privy to the UPSI, submitted by FRL, included Kishore Biyani, the CMD and Promoter of FRL who was also a Director on the Board of FCRPL, among others.
“I find that the material available on record does not indicate the amount of specific loss caused to investors or group of investors as a result of the default by the noticees or that default by the noticees is repetitive in nature. However, wrongful gains made are being directed to be disgorged by this order,” said the order by Ananta Barua, wholetime member of SEBI.
Accordingly, any lapses in construction quality of bridges, structures, approaches to structure by concessionaires, contractors or consultants will invite penal action….reports Asian Lite News
To maintain high quality standards in highway development, National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has decided to penalise firms for lapses in construction standards.
Accordingly, any lapses in construction quality of bridges, structures, approaches to structure by concessionaires, contractors or consultants will invite penal action.
“New policy allows NHAI to impose graded penalties that include heavy fines, debarment and ban on bidding for any future NHAI projects for upto three years,” the NHAI said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Graded penal action will be taken against the defaulters in cases of minor lapses, major incidents and major failures resulting in loss of human lives.”
For each repeated lapse by the defaulting contractors, concessionaires or consultants, the penalty for the subsequent offence has been provisioned to be enhanced by an additional 50 per cent as compared to penalty imposed in the previous instance.
“Suitable action on NHAI officials shall also be taken, depending on the extent of dereliction of the duties by the concerned official.”
As per the standard operating procedures, an expert committee will be constituted in compliance with an already established post-accident mechanism, to investigate the matter.
“On the outcome of the investigation, suitable penalty shall be imposed. During the term of investigation, the concerned personnel of the contractor, concessionaire and consulting firm may be kept under suspension from working on the project or any other projects of the authority.”
Briefing the media on the Budget 2021-22 initiatives, the commerce secretary said that one primary area of focus is the creation of a robust infrastructure, logistics and utilities environment for the manufacturing sector….reports Asian Lite News
The Budget for 2021-22 extensively and comprehensively envisages several initiatives and areas of focus, aimed at enhancing India’s overall competitiveness and manufacturing capacities, which would enable growth, diversification and technological enhancement of India’s exports, Commerce Secretary Anup Wadhawan said on Wednesday.
These cover both ease of doing business in the area of approvals and procedures, and the physical environment for investment, targeting a plug and play eco-system for investors, he said.
Briefing the media on the Budget 2021-22 initiatives, the commerce secretary said that one primary area of focus is the creation of a robust infrastructure, logistics and utilities environment for the manufacturing sector.
Some of these measures include a scheme for Mega Investment Textiles Parks (MITRA), which will create world class infrastructure with plug and play facilities to enable the creation of global champions in the sector, benefiting from economies of scale and agglomeration. Seven Textile Parks will be established over three years.
He said that further, steps like substantial investments in the development of modern fishing harbours and fish landing centres will be made in five major fishing harbours at Kochi, Chennai, Visakhapatnam, Paradip, and Petuaghat, along with a multipurpose Seaweed Park in Tamil Nadu, are proposed. These measures are expected to boost exports from the textiles and marine sector.
Wadhawan said that for the promotion of exports from the agriculture sector, the “Operation Green” scheme of Ministry of Food Processing Industry, which is presently limited to onion, potatoes and tomatoes, has been increased to 22 perishable items. This would promote creation of infrastructure and value addition for horticulture products.
Also, the Budget allocation for the schemes such as Agriculture Export Policy (AEP) and Transport and Marketing Assistance (TMA) has been enhanced, which will help in the implementation of AEP in States and boost agriculture exports.
Speaking on the plantation sector, the Commerce secretary said that Rs. 1,000 crores have been provided in the Budget for the welfare of tea workers, especially women and their children. This will benefit around 10.75 lakh tea workers, including 6.23 lakh women workers engaged in the big tea estates of Assam and West Bengal. In addition, around 1.47 lakh small tea growers are also likely to be benefited.
Wadhawan said that this Budget also promotes ease of doing business through rationalisation of procedures, easing of compliances and trade facilitation measures. The measures include certain changes in the provisions relating to ADD and CVD levies, mandatory filing of bills of entry before the end of day preceding the day of arrival of goods, he added.
He further added that streamlining of the ADD / CVD provisions, including measures aimed at enforcing anti-absorption, will potentially enable a level playing for domestic industry through addressing unfair trade practices.
The commerce Secretary said that the Budget has proposed rationalisation of customs duty structure with a thrust on both easy and competitive access to raw material and infant industry protection objectives to encourage exports, particularly of value-added products.
This includes reduction in duties on critical raw-material such as iron and steel, copper scrap, naptha, nylon fibre and yarn, etc. To rationalise the duty structure of gold and silver, the rates have been reduced to 7.5% from 12.5% with Agriculture Infrastructure and Development Cess of 2.5 %.
Future Retail moved the court against status quo order on the deal with Reliance and the hearing will take place on Thursday….reports Asian Lite News
Future Retail has filed an appeal in the Delhi High Court against the impugned order dated February 2 passed by a single judge, the company said in a filing.
Future Retail moved the court against status quo order on the deal with Reliance and the hearing will take place on Thursday.
Bar and Bench reported that a division bench of Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh said that the matter would be heard on Thursday.
Mentioning the filing of the appeal, senior advocate Darius Khambata for Future Retail Ltd urged the bench to hear their stay application on Wednesday afternoon itself.
“FRL will be saved from insolvency…the matter is coming up tomorrow otherwise..”, Khambata said as per the report.
Senior advocate Rajiv Nayar for Amazon, opposed the mentioning and stated that the court’s procedure ought to be followed.
On Tuesday, a single-judge bench of Justice J.R. Midha had directed Future Retail Ltd to maintain status quo in relation to its deal with Reliance.
Till now, 76 per cent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the states and UTs with the Legislative Assembly….reports Asian Lite News
Finance Ministry has released the 14th weekly instalment of Rs 6,000 crore to the states on Wednesday to meet the GST compensation shortfall.
Out of this, an amount of Rs 5,516.60 crore has been released to 23 states and an amount of Rs 483.40 crore has been released to the three union territories (UT) with Legislative Assembly (Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, & Puducherry) who are members of the GST Council. The remaining five states — Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Mizoram, Nagaland and Sikkim — do not have a gap in revenue on account of GST implementation.
Till now, 76 per cent of the total estimated GST compensation shortfall has been released to the states and UTs with the Legislative Assembly. Out of this, an amount of Rs 76,616.16 crore has been released to the states and an amount of Rs 7,383.84 crore has been released to the three UTs with the Legislative Assembly.
The government had set up a special borrowing window in October, 2020 to meet the estimated shortfall of Rs 1.10 lakh crore in revenue arising on account of implementation of GST. The borrowings are being done through this window by the Government of India on behalf of the states and UTs. A total of 14 rounds of borrowings have been completed so far starting from October 23, 2020.
The amount released this week was the 14th instalment of such funds provided to the states. The amount has been borrowed this week at an interest rate of 4.6144 per cent.
So far, an amount of Rs 84,000 crore has been borrowed by the Central Government through the special borrowing window at an average interest rate of 4.7395%.
In addition to providing funds through the special borrowing window to meet the shortfall in revenue on account of GST implementation, the Centre has also granted additional borrowing permission equivalent to 0.50 per cent of Gross States Domestic Product (GSDP) to the states choosing Option-I to meet GST compensation shortfall to help them in mobilising additional financial resources. All the states have given their preference for Option-I. Permission for borrowing the entire additional amount of Rs 1,06,830 crore (0.50 per cent of GSDP) has been granted to 28 states under this provision.
The court said that till the pronouncement of the order, Future Retail Ltd and other respondent parties cannot proceed any further with the deal with Reliance…reports Asian Lite News
In a big relief to Amazon, the Delhi High Court on Tuesday directed Future Retail Ltd to maintain status quo in relation to its deal with Reliance, the Bar and Bench reported.
Reserving its order in Amazon’s interim plea to stop Future Group companies and officials from relying on the approvals given by the statutory authorities in relation to the deal, a single judge bench of Justice J.R. Midha said, “Immediate orders are necessary to protect the rights of the petitioner till the pronouncement of the reserved order.”
The court said that till the pronouncement of the order, Future Retail Ltd and other respondent parties cannot proceed any further with the deal with Reliance, the report said.
In a media statement, Future Retail Ltd (FRL) said the company, after due approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and no objection from SEBI, had filed the scheme of arrangement before the NCLT Mumbai on January 26. The application is yet to be taken up by the NCLT.
“The learned single judge Justice Midha of Delhi High Court today in a petition by Amazon for enforcement of the interim award of the Emergency Arbitrator has ordered status quo with respect to the scheme of arrangement,” FRL said.
“The company is legally advised that the basis of the interim award of the emergency arbitrator has been superseded by the judgement dated December 21, 2020 passed by the learned single judge, Justice Mukta Gupta of the Delhi High Court. The company will explore all legal remedies and take appropriate steps to pursue the scheme of arrangement,” it added.
The court also clarified that all the authorities shall maintain status quo in all matters that are in violation of the emergency award passed in the Amazon-Future dispute and file a status report in this regard within 10 days.
Additionally, FRL has been directed to state all the steps and actions taken by it after the date of the Emergency Award, i.e., October 25, 2020, in connection with the deal with Reliance.
As per the report, the court further gave a prima facie finding that the Emergency Arbitrator rightly proceeded against FRL, that the Emergency Award was not a nullity, and that it was enforceable under Section 17(2) of the Arbitration Act.
It also prima facie said that the Emergency Award was appealable under Section 37 of Arbitration Act.
Amazon had moved the Delhi High Court last month for enforcement of the Emergency Award passed under Section 17(2) of the Arbitration & Conciliation Act.
It had alleged that Future Group, Kishore Biyani as well as other promoters and directors were “deliberately and maliciously” disobeying the Emergency Award in spite of their participation in the arbitration proceedings
